Things to Do in Eureka Springs, Arkansas: A Visitor's Day Plan Around the 3 PM Show

Eureka Springs is a Victorian mountain town in the Ozarks with a downtown built into a hillside, and it rewards visitors who plan around one or two anchor events rather than trying to see everything. The Aviation Cadet Museum makes an easy anchor, because it runs exactly one show a day, at 3:00 PM, three miles northeast of town.

Here is the plan we give families who call ahead.

Start with the fixed point: 3:00 PM

The museum's show is live and interactive, taught in person by museum president and former Aviation Cadet Errol D. Severe. It runs one and a half to two hours, so plan on being done between 4:30 and 5:00 PM. Reservations are required, seats are limited, and the regular season runs April 1 through October 31. We are closed Sundays and some holidays.

Morning: downtown Eureka Springs on foot

Give the morning to the historic downtown. The whole commercial district is on the National Register, the streets wind rather than grid, and it is best walked rather than driven — the shops, galleries and cafés are close together and parking is easier once than four times. Wear real shoes; the hills are not a rumor.

Midday: the springs, the lake or a drive

The town is named for its springs, and the parks built around them are short, shaded walks — good for a hot afternoon before you sit down for the show. Beaver Lake and the White River country are a short drive out of town if you would rather be on the water. Whatever you choose, start heading back by 2:15 PM so you are parked at Silver Wings Field before 3:00.

Afternoon: the Aviation Cadet Museum

This is the part visitors do not expect. You can walk up to a Republic F-105 Thunderchief — the supersonic fighter-bomber pilots called the Thud — an F-100 Super Sabre, a T-33 Shooting Star, a Convair T-29 navigator trainer, a Navy T-34 Mentor and a Northrop F-5. Inside, you can strap into the AeroBall SimCab, the only surviving example of a simulator originally built at a cost of over three million dollars, and fly it yourself.

There is a working hangar packed with Cadet-era airframes, a narrow gauge train ride through the property, and a chapel on the field. Families with kids consistently tell us the SimCab and the train are what gets talked about on the drive home.

Evening: back in town

You will be back downtown by 5:00 PM with the evening free — which in Eureka Springs means dinner, music, and a town that looks better at dusk than it does at noon.

Practical notes

• Book the museum online with a card. We only take cash at the door, so an advance ticket is the safer way to hold seats.
• Off season, call 479-253-5008 — we take two or more adults at any time of year, weather permitting.
• Give yourself 20 minutes from downtown to the field, more on a summer weekend.
• Pilots can fly in to Silver Wings Field (55AR) with prior permission.